Intro | Background 2 | Breathe 2 | Manchester | Propositions 2 3 4 | References | Results 2 | Inquiries | Notes

Context: Breathe — continued

During the residency, I engaged in a self-directed course of study spanning:

• Slang, weather and temperaments in Manchester
• The case for optimism in America’s near future2,3,
• Time perspectives
• Psychology: happiness, pain, pleasure and desire

Throughout the residency, I also enjoyed my opportunities to view and write about art. I visited art institutions around the North West and Midlands, including Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool, as well as in London. The shows that left lasting impressions include:

• Simon and Tom Bloor’s As Long As It Lasts at Eastside Projects
• Armando Andrade Tudela’s solo show at IKON Gallery
• Annette Messenger’s The Messengers and Mark Wallinger Curates The Russian Lineman at Hayward Gallery
• Gregor Schnieder’s Kinderzimmer in Subversive Spaces at the Whitworth Art Gallery
• Julio Le Parc’s Continuous Mobile, Continual Light (1960) and Melanie Smith’s Six Steps to Abstraction (2004) in the DLA Piper series’ The Twentieth Century: How it Looked and Felt at the Tate Liverpool.

Finally, I engaged the U.K. arts community via:

• Attending exhibitions and publishing reviews of them on my blog.
• Attending the Tuesday Talks series at the Whitworth Art Gallery.
• Attending symposia, namely, Fly Eric in Barrow-in-Furness (Art Gene/Castlefied Gallery/Storey Gallery) and Global Modernities at Tate Britain.
• Sharing my work with MA students from Leeds University, MA Fine Arts Manchester Metropolitan University, MA Museum and Curatorial Studies Manchester Metropolitan University
• Sharing my work with Plaited Fog, an artist’s collective in Preston.

These experiences, combined with research, have resulted in surprising new developments in my theory of optimism and pessimism.

notes

2. Fareed Zakaria. The Post American World. London: Allen Lane [2008]

3. Barack Obama. Dreams From My Father. Edinburgh: Canongate [2007]